The Forgotten Empire: War for the Empire by Raymond Weil (ereader ebook .txt) 📕

of your major worlds are building warships. I want at least ten dreadnoughts and one hundred battlecruisers assigned permanently to your defense, once we have the ships available. I would also like to see five thousand attack interceptors ready to deploy as well.”

Governor Bloom nodded. “We’re building them ourselves. But, in order to have that many and the crews to fly them, it’ll take three more months at least.”

Dylan had suspected this. “I’ll see if I can get some interceptors and crews from some of the other worlds. I’ll make it plain that I expect the main battle to be above Gideon.”

Governor Bloom frowned. She knew the importance Gideon would play in the admiral’s plans to defend the star cluster. She just hoped her people would be safe.

Dylan looked down at the PDC one last time. “Let’s go inspect the main base. We may spend most of the afternoon there, as I want to do an inspection on the ground.”

Dylan leaned back in his seat, as the aircar turned and headed north. He wondered how much time they had before the Morag had the Confederation back under control. No doubt once that was done, they would launch a full-scale attack against the Empire.

-

It took nearly an hour to reach the massive base sitting on the north pole of the moon. As they neared the base, Dylan was taken aback by its pure size. The base stretched out over one hundred kilometers. The landscape was dotted with defensive turrets, massive fusion energy cannons, and hundreds of missile launchers.

As they flew over the base, Dylan looked down and saw the gigantic reinforced hangars that held several thousand attack interceptors. He saw many more under construction. Above the base several full squadrons of attack interceptors underwent flight training.

“We have four flight schools continuously in session,” explained Governor Bloom. “Once we land, I’ll have General Flynn explain everything in more detail.”

The aircar descended and soon approached a small landing field. As soon as Dylan stepped from the aircar, a military band began playing the Imperial March, and several hundred Marines were lined up in parade formation. Dylan paused, surprised, and, upon seeing the small line of officers in front of the assembled Marines, headed straight toward them. He stopped in front of them and saluted, being saluted back in return.

“You have a fine group of Marines here,” commented Dylan, smiling.

“This is General Flynn,” introduced Governor Bloom, gesturing toward the most decorated officer.

“General, it’s good to meet you. If you don’t mind, I would like to take a tour of your base.”

Flynn nodded. “I would be delighted to show you around. We’ve accomplished a lot these last few months. We have construction across the base going nonstop throughout the day and night. If you will follow me, we have some vehicles waiting.”

-

For the next several hours they drove around the base, inspecting weapon turrets, missile launchers, and one of the massive fusion energy beam cannons that could reach up into space. Finally they stopped at one of the large reinforced hangars that housed a full squadron of attack interceptors.

-

Dylan walked over and put his hand on one of the interceptors. He saw a young pilot standing nervously nearby. “How does she fly?” he asked, looking at the pilot and smiling.

“Great, sir,” he stammered.

“Don’t be nervous, son,” Dylan said, reaching out and putting his hand on the pilot’s shoulder. “We need you pilots. Learn everything you can because what you do is very important to the Empire.”

“Yes, sir,” replied the pilot a little less nervously.

Dylan stopped and talked to a few mechanics and a few other pilots, as they walked through the hangar. He was surprised how well trained everyone was and how young some of them were.

“Let’s go to the Command Center,” suggested General Flynn.

-

The Command Center was located one thousand meters beneath the ground. As they stepped inside, Dylan was surprised at how large it was. Hundreds of viewscreens revealed areas from across the base as well as the moon.

“From here we can monitor the entire star system,” General Flynn informed Dylan. “We are tied in with the main Command Center on Tantula Five, and we can cross-coordinate, if we need to.”

They walked around the Command Center, stopping occasionally to talk to some of the hundreds of officers operating the control consoles.

“I’m impressed,” commented Dylan, as they finished the tour. “You’ve made more progress than I could have hoped for.”

“We recognize the danger,” replied General Flynn. “If the Confederation comes here, I don’t intend to lose the battle.”

Dylan smiled. “I believe that. I will promise you this. If the Confederation comes here, I’ll be close by with my fleet, and you can count on that.”

-

Later, as Rear Admiral Fulmar and Dylan flew back up to the Themis, Dylan turned toward Fulmar. “What do you think?”

“I was amazed at what all they have accomplished. If they have time to finish everything, this moon will be a death trap for any Confederation fleet that attacks it.”

Dylan didn’t reply. No one knew he was setting up the Hagen Star Cluster to stop the Confederation cold. The cluster would be the site of the biggest and deadliest battles. He just hoped most of the cluster survived.

-

All across the Empire, Confederation ships and small patrol fleets were pulling back to the Confederation to put down the unrest sweeping over so many Confederation-controlled worlds.

On numerous Human planets, they looked up into the sky and noticed the Confederation warships were gone. Many wondered what had happened. Also a strong demand came across many worlds to join the Empire, as they did not want to fall under Confederation control again.

-

On Golan Four an emergency meeting was held of the Imperial Council. They were discussing the sudden influx of messages from worlds requesting immediate